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Haribol Kirtana

After the temple darsana in the evening there is always a big kirtana during arati, especially with Lokanatha Maharaja and his men here, as they are extremely enthusiastic chanters. However, they have developed a style of kirtana that is a little different from the ISKCON norm. When the kirtana reaches its climax, they gather around in a group and start singing 'nitai-gaura haribol, haribol, haribol, haribol.' They get completely carried away with chanting haribol. Sometimes they go on for five or ten minutes singing back and forth, 'haribol, haribol! haribol, haribol! Sometimes it even goes on longer than the chanting of the maha-mantra. Some devotees are not happy about it, although no one can fault their enthusiasm.

Harikesa Swami objects to it quite strongly, and this evening he went into the garden to ask Srila Prabhupada's opinion. Since we have never heard Srila Prabhupada sing this mantra, Harikesa had doubts it was actually a bona fide practice. Prabhupada had stopped Lokanatha's kirtana at the pandala in Delhi, but at that time he gave no reason why.

Now this evening, Prabhupada, although not too upset by it, made it clear that such chanting was not approved by him. He told us that we should mainly chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. He said 'nitai-gaura haribol' is all right, because they are bona fide names of the Lord, but the real point is that we should strictly follow only what the acaryas have given. This is the process. He said that the acaryas only chant all five names of the Panca-tattva, not just two. So although there is no offence in chanting the names of GauraNitai, if we deviate and chant our own made-up mantras then this is guror-avajna, or disobeying the orders of the spiritual master, and the line of acaryas. To make advancement in spiritual life one must always follow the line of acaryas.

He referred to the asrama at the back of our temple where they sing every morning, "nitai-gaura radhe-syama japa hare krsna hare rama." He said that it is offensive because it is a deviation from the line of acaryas.


- From "A Transcendental Diary Vol 4" by HG Hari Sauri Prabhu